BFA Art School Portfolio Critique

This video features an art school portfolio by Ewan McKinney. In it we provide a detailed critique of the overall portfolio, followed by critiques for each individual artwork.

The critique highlights what aspects of the entire portfolio and which artworks are working well, and recommends concrete strategies for how to make progress.

Critique by Art Prof Clara Lieu & Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster.

Featured Artist

Ewan McKinney

“I’ve been an artist my whole life and I’ve only within the past few years made the decision to start my journey to becoming an animator or concept artist. I intend on working on video games, cartoons, or movies, as I personally find art most fulfilling when used as a storytelling tool.

I’m wondering what I can do to improve my portfolio for next year, as I feel it’s quite lackluster at the moment. I was incredibly rushed in creating it; I started applying to schools a full month after their deadlines and hadn’t really made much art within the past couple years that I’d felt was worth showing off, as most of it was digital portraiture.

I know that there is very little medium variety in my portfolio, but I did try to include a lot of different types of digital pieces that show off various skills (character design, 3d modeling, digital painting, animation, etc.); over the next year I hope to explore traditional media to bolster my portfolio some more, as I’m very inexperienced with everything but graphite.

I’d just like some general advice on what areas I need to work on most in the next year, and maybe some suggestions on what sorts of traditional media I should experiment with if possible.”

Ewan McKinney
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